Dragons begin with courage

Lu Mingfei couldn't reconcile these two completely different concepts with the figure before him. Reason screamed at him to tell him the truth, but his emotions cowered in a corner, refusing to accept this cruel puzzle.

Lu Mingfei has been in the inner world for three or four months now. The knowledge he has come into contact with and the real dragons have all told him that dragons are "pure loners who pursue absolute power" and "the ultimate obsession with power and revenge." The settings of Blood Sorrow and Dragon Heart have all proven the brutality of dragons.

The most powerful Black King is the embodiment of despair; he brings about the end of the world, and the appearance of any of the other kings will bring about a catastrophe that destroys their race.

Therefore, Lu Mingfei never believed that Lao Tang was such a creature.

"Xiao Ming, dragons are indeed as you know them. The Sorrow of Blood and the Heart of the Dragon sealed all of this." Norton slowly put down his teacup, his calm tone concealing boundless anger. He said, "What angers me most is that you took the Seven Deadly Sins and the Bone Vial."

Norton suddenly laughed, a laugh utterly cold. He tapped his fingertips lightly on the teacup, the porcelain instantly melting into a crimson liquid, only to be forcibly solidified by some force into a distorted sculpture. "What truly enrages me is that someone has erased my memories, like manipulating a puppet!"

Boom—!

The entire bronze city roared as if a colossal beast had awakened. The gear matrix on the dome seemed to be crushed by an invisible giant hand, and tens of thousands of bronze parts poured down like a rain of metal. Lu Mingfei rolled across the violently shaking ground, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the giant beam falling above Nuonuo's head. Almost instinctively, he lunged forward, catching the girl in his arms at the last second. Where the bronze beam had crashed, the spot where they had stood was now a deep crater emitting blue smoke.

As Lu Mingfei ran out of the room and saw the fallen bronze parts, he knew that the Dragon King's authority was awakening.

"The day I awaken will be the day of vengeance!" Norton's voice pierced through layers of bronze walls, each syllable triggering a new tremor. "The blood of kings will end with the sword!" The entire bronze city began to pulsate like a primordial beast, the dragon runes engraved on the walls lighting up one after another, like molten lava flowing through veins. Lu Mingfei suddenly remembered what Chu Zihang had once said—the palace of the King of Bronze and Fire might very well be a living alchemical weapon.

The Three Gorges, the waters surrounding the Bronze City.

The makeshift defenses hastily erected by Kassel College were struck hard by an invisible hammer in an instant!

It wasn't a physical impact, but a vast, overwhelming pressure originating from the soul. The assault team, led by Professor Schneider and Professor Manstein, regardless of their social standing, collectively stiffened, as if tons of seawater had suddenly pressed down on their shoulders and backs. Their knees buckled uncontrollably, and they staggered, almost kneeling on the ground! It wasn't fear, but an absolute crushing on a life-level scale.

"Ugh—!" A B-level agent let out a painful groan.

The pointer of the precision alchemical compass in Professor Manstein's hand went completely mad! It stopped spinning and instead left afterimages within the glass case, like a top being whipped wildly by an invisible hand. Then, a piercing alarm tore through the air, and the index representing the concentration of dragon blood on the screen, to everyone's horror, skyrocketed from the warning line of a few hundred to three thousand, five thousand, and finally settled at an immeasurably high value!

"Damn it! The index... the index is out of control!" An executive officer instinctively pulled out a Geiger counter. As soon as the instrument was turned on, it burst out with a "crack" and a ball of electric sparks, and the internal components were instantly overloaded and burned out.

Meanwhile, on the distant surface of the Yangtze River, strange phenomena suddenly appeared!

boom--!!!

Tens of thousands of tons of river water were forcibly pushed aside by a terrifying force originating from the abyss! A huge bulge with a diameter of over a hundred meters rose in the middle of the river, and the water surged in all directions, forming a destructive ring of giant waves that crashed fiercely against the shore defense line! It was as if some ancient ferocious beast was slowly rising from its throne at the bottom of the water.

Kassel College, Central Command Center.

Countless screens were simultaneously engulfed in a blinding crimson light, and piercing alarms merged into a deathly chorus. Even Norma's perpetually calm, synthesized female voice, now tinged with unprecedented urgency and gravity, resounded through every communication channel, echoing in every corner:

"Highest alert! Highest alert!" "Extraordinary dragon blood bio-energy reaction detected in the Three Gorges area of ​​the Yangtze River, China!" "Level determination: Dragon King! Repeat, Dragon King!" "Target identification... King of Bronze and Fire, Norton! Awakening reaction confirmed!"

Dead silence. You could hear a pin drop in the command room; only the red glow of the screens illuminated the pale faces of the crew.

The next second, Professor Schneider's hoarse yet resolute voice, like the friction of steel, exploded into the headphones of every member of the Kassel team:

"All personnel! Highest combat readiness!" His roar drowned out all the alarms. "This is not a drill, not a rescue! Norma has confirmed the Dragon King's awakening—this is war! The King of Bronze and Fire, one of the Four Lords… has been resurrected!"

It was as if to confirm this doomsday declaration.

Boom! ...

On the surface of the Yangtze River in the Three Gorges, the enormous water bubble exploded! It wasn't an explosive, but a physical phenomenon caused by a pure release of energy. Thick, milky-white water vapor mixed with high-temperature steam shot upwards in a radial pattern, instantly engulfing the entire river area and reducing visibility to less than ten meters. The pungent smell of sulfur and corroded metal in the mist was so strong it was nauseating.

Immediately afterwards—

Gulu...Gulu...O. oO. oO. oO. oO. oO. oO. o

A chilling, dense, torrential sound of bubbling water, like a downpour, came from beneath the mist-shrouded river surface, growing louder and closer.

"Be on guard! There's something underwater!" Caesar Gattuso's golden eyes lit up first in the mist. His incantation allowed him to quickly spot what was underwater. He stood at the bow of the assault boat, wielding the giant blade "Dictator," his voice terrifyingly calm.

Before he could finish speaking...

Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff—!

The continuous sound of water breaking through the fog ripped through the mist! One after another, silver-white figures, like demons crawling out of hell, shot out from the churning river!

They were humanoid, yet twisted like snakes, their heads grotesque serpent heads, with eerie blue soul fires, filled with resentment and a bloodthirsty desire, flickering deep within their eye sockets. Their bodies were riveted together from ancient bronze components, their joints hissing and spewing out hot white steam with every movement. The weapons they wielded were bizarre and varied: twisted halberds, chains covered in barbs, and metal tentacles that writhed and lashed out like living creatures… each radiating intense alchemical energy.

Not flesh and blood, but bronze undead servants driven by living spirits! The most basic and numerous weapons of war in the Norton Dynasty.